The 5 Hour Rule

Many of you are familiar with Malcom Gladwell's "10,000-Hour Rule" as made famous in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success.  Recently I read an article by Michael Simmons titled Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Oprah Winfrey All Use the 5 Hour Rule, which highlights how top business leaders spend 5 hours per week doing deliberate learning.  These 5 hours of of what can also be called "deliberate practice" enable these individuals to become (and stay) "world-class" in their respective arenas of business (AKA the world of work).

I, of course, couldn't help but draw the comparison to fitness and CrossFit.  5 hours per week of dedicated learning and/or practice in the area of fitness can be attained through 5 classes at Arena Ready, or perhaps a mix of classes and Open Gym time, or even CrossFit combined regularly with other training regimens/practices or outside sports.  It's a cool way to think of working toward becoming (and staying) "world-class" in the arena of life (AKA crushing it).  Such dedicated practice in the name of physical (and really, mental) capacity reaps huge benefits in context of the rest of your busy and rewarding life - relationships, family, career, emotional health, physical health, etc.  You don't do CrossFit 5 hours a week only to be good at CrossFit - you also do it to be great at life.            

The article is a quick and interesting read and can be found here - the author, of course, made his own connection of the "5 Hour Rule" to fitness and exercise in the article, stating:

We should look at the five-hour rule the same way we look at exercise

We need to move beyond the cliché, "Lifelong learning is good," and think more deeply about the minimum amount of learning the average person should do per day to have a sustainable and successful career.

Just as we have minimum recommended dosages of vitamins and steps per day and of aerobic exercise for leading a healthy life physically, we should be more rigorous about how we as an information society think about the minimum doses of deliberate learning for leading a healthy life economically.

The long-term effects of not learning are just as insidious as the long-term effects of not having a healthy lifestyle. The CEO of AT&T makes this point loud and clear in an interview with The New York Times; he says that those who don't spend at least five to 10 hours a week learning online "will obsolete themselves with technology."   

-Michael Simmons of Empact for Inc.com  

WOD for 01-09-17:

Power Snatch + Hang Squat Snatch:

5 Sets of (1+1)

Climbing

-then-

AMRAP 10 Minutes:

12 Power Snatches @ 75/55 lbs

12 Box Jumps @ 24/20 in

12 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls @ 75/55 lbs

12 AbMat Sit-ups